Read Online Brazen (Brazen 1) by Maya Banks - Free Book Online Page A

had happened before.”
    “And what changed your mind?” He started to mention the fact that she’d only told Zane the night before, but he didn’t want to betray Zane’s confidence.
    She shrugged. “Maybe it’s time I grew up. Stop letting the past dictate my present. Maybe it’s time I stopped being ashamed of something that I couldn’t control. Yes, I made mistakes and I paid for them. I don’t want to pay for them any longer. I’m tired of you and Zane looking at me like a child who needs protecting. So maybe it’s time I started taking care of myself.”
    Her shoulders stiffened, and she sat up a little straighter as she stared challengingly at him.
    “I don’t see you as a child,” he said mildly.
    She arched a brow. “No? Maybe you see me as a woman, but you fight that tooth and nail. You want to see me as a child, so the fact that you don’t isn’t very consoling.”
    He hated when women started talking in riddles. There wasn’t a man alive who could decipher what she’d just said.
    “So you’re saying I don’t see you as a child, but I want to see you as a child, and you don’t like that.”
    “Do you deny it?”
    “Yes. No. Hell, I don’t know what the crap you’re saying, so I have no idea how to answer.”
    She slid over the seat until she was inches from his face. “It’s a very simple thing,” she whispered. “Either you still see me as that helpless sixteen-year-old you saved six years ago, or you see me as a woman. What do you think when you look at me?”
    If that wasn’t a fucking loaded question he didn’t know what was. She was too damn close, and his body was betraying him in the worst way.
    He averted his gaze from her eyes, but it fell to the soft mounds of her breasts, just peeking over the top of her tank top. He jerked his head back up. A child? Fuck, he wished he could envision a child when he looked at her. Maybe then his body wouldn’t seize. Wouldn’t tighten as if someone had clamped a vise grip around him.
    “Maybe you need help deciding?”
    He started to shake his head, but she feathered her fingertips over his jaw and pressed her lips to his. Shock exploded through his system. No matter how often he may have fantasized about kissing her, the reality was startling. He hadn’t imagined it ever happening, because he was determined it wouldn’t. Only now she’d taken the choice from him.
    Her lips slid sensuously over his. Hot. Lusty. Her tongue found his in his moment of surprise. For a brief moment, he allowed himself to get lost in her sweetness, allowed himself to imagine taking her home to his bed.
    He yanked away, breathing hard as he tried to settle his raging arousal. “Christ, Jasmine! We can’t be doing this.”
    “Why not?” she challenged. “You don’t want me?”
    He swore. “I think we’ve both established that wanting you is not the issue here.”
    “Then what is?”
    He chanced a look at her. Hurt reflected in her beautiful eyes. And something else. The faint light of determination.
    “You need to forget this ever happened,” he said. “We can’t go down this road, Jasmine.”
    “Will you forget? Can you forget it?”
    “I don’t have a choice,” he said grimly.
    “Why?”
    He ground his teeth in frustration. And he knew he was being an ass before the words ever came out of his mouth, but he spoke without thinking.
    “Look, don’t read anything into my reaction to you. You’re a beautiful woman. Men tend to trip all over themselves when a beautiful woman throws herself at him. But it doesn’t mean anything. It could have been any woman.”
    Her swift intake of breath was like a rifle shot. Hurt spilled into her eyes even as her lips tightened in anger. He braced himself for her response, but she said nothing. She grabbed her camera bag and turned to the door.
    “Jasmine, wait,” he called as she opened her door and jerkily got out.
    She put her hand up without turning around. “I can make it back by